05032019-CT-01.qxd 3/5/2019 1:22 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh TRIBUNE TUESDAY | 5 MARCH 2019 | CHANDIGARH PU’S STUDENT CENTRE IN DIRE NEED OF RENOVATION PAGE 2 Missing umbrella sheds, broken benches, metal sheets coming off tables, stinking toilets are Stu-C’s bane. FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY INBRIEF NEELAM MANSINGH BEREAVED Chandigarh: Pushwinder Chowdhry, 73, husband of renowned theatre director Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, passed away around 5 pm at his residence in Sector 4 here on Monday. He is survived by his wife and sons Anghad Chowdhry and Kabir Chowdhry. The cremation will take place at Sector 25 here at 5 pm on Tuesday. TNS TRICITY FUEL PRICES PETROL DIESEL CHANDIGARH ~68.31 ~64.43 PANCHKULA ~72.26 ~66.64 MOHALI ~72.93 ~67.22 WHAT’S ON CHANDIGARH POETRY SESSION: Ibarat Lekhak Manch to organise, ‘Adab ke Rang’, a ‘mushaira’; Tagore Theatre; 6.30 pm PLAY: NZCC-Patiala to stage a play, ‘Gadha’, by Performers’ Association Punjab; Navrang Theatre; 6.30 pm ORCHESTRA: ICCR to present ‘Jazz band orchestra’ Kazakhstan; GGDSD College; 6.30 pm APNI MANDI: Sector 29, 56 and Dhanas MOHALI APNI MANDI: Sector 71 PANCHKULA APNI MANDI: Sector 15 ETT, TET QUALIFIED YOUTHS CLIMB ATOP WATER TANK PAGE 4 Five jobless ETT and TET qualified youths climb atop water tank, threaten to self-immolate. MAX 24°C | MIN 11°C | YESTERDAY MAX 22.8°C | MIN 12°C SUNSET TUESDAY 6:22 PM Fine performance by all-rounder Abhishek Sharma helps Punjab register 134-run win over Chhattisgarh. SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 6:46 AM Gang of vehicle thieves busted Couple among three arrested; two SUVs, three cars recovered from them FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE MC terms Bansal’s RTI queries as ‘hypothetical’ MAN HELD WITH PISTOL Mohali, March 4 The local police today claimed to have busted a gang of vehicle thieves by arresting its three members, including a woman. The suspects have been identified as Ankit, a resident of Alawa village in Haryana, Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, of Wadala village in Amritsar, and his wife Saroj, alias Sonia, a resident of Patiala. At present, the couple was residing at a rented accommodation in Swastik Vihar, Zirakpur. The police recovered two stolen Fortuner SUVs, a Maruti Swift, a Maruti Celerio and a Santro car, along with some tools that the suspects used to change the engine and chassis numbers of stolen cars. Senior Superintendent of Police HS Bhullar said the Mohali: The police arrested a man with a .32-bore pistol and two live cartridges here. The suspect has been identified as Sanjay Gupta, a native of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, who was putting up in Phase 2, Mohali. According to the police, the suspect had purchased the weapon for ~60,000 from Agra. The police claimed that he was into lottery business and facing financial crunch of late. “He had purchased the weapon with an intention to commit a robbery,” said the police. A case under Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered against him at the Kharar police station here. TNS Ex-MP sought info on property tax survey < SSP Harcharan Singh Bhullar < briefs mediapersons on the arrest of suspects in vehicle theft and arms cases in Mohali on Monday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: VICKY casual reply ❝A to me, whichwas given gang consisted of at least eight members. “We have identified most of them after the arrest of the trio. Raids are on to nab the remaining members of the gang,” said the SSP . The top cop of the district added that the trio was nabbed at Swastik Vihar in Zirakpur. “They were in a Swift car, which they used to conduct recce before stealing vehicles. The suspects had affixed a fake registration Boy driving Creta was not drunk: Police NRI’S DEATH IN MISHAP RELEASED ON BAIL Tribune News Service Mohali, March 4 The local police today claimed that the minor boy, who was behind the wheel of Creta car that rammed into a cab leaving an NRI travelling in it dead, was not drunk at the time of the mishap. According to Inspector Gabbar Singh, SHO, Phase 8 police station, Somal Soni (17), a student of Class XII, was coming in his mother’s Creta car after paying obeisance at a local gurdwara medical examination of Somal ❝We have gotHe was not drunk at the time of Soni (17) conducted. the incident. The offence was bailable, so we released him on bail. Inspector Gabbar Singh, SHO, PHASE 8 POLICE STATION . ❞ along with his friend when he lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into an Alto cab. The collision left an NRI, Sanjiv Kumar (45), who was travelling in the cab, dead. “We have got medical examination of Somal conducted. He was not drunk at the time of the incident,” claimed Inspector Gabbar Singh. In his statement, the minor accused told the police that a car driver turned right after giving the left indicator, following which he lost control of his vehicle and hit the Alto car in the rear side. The cab in turn hit a railing along the road. Sanjiv Kumar, who was sit- TRIBUNE PHOTO: MANOJ MAHAJAN The broken floor of a bus queue shelter being used by a vendor to help customers sit and binge in Sector 22, Chandigarh, on Monday. The UT Administration has not rebuilt several such bus queue shelters in the city after razing them years ago. ting behind the driver’s seat, died on the spot. The cab driver, identified as Rupinder Singh, escaped unhurt. Notably, Somal is son of a police inspector posted at Fatehgarh Sahib. Earlier, the accused’s father was incharge of the Mohali CIA wing here. The victim, an NRI from England, had arrived here last month and was to return on March 9. Sanjiv Kumar is survived by his wife and two children. “The offence was bailable, so we released Somal on bail after arresting him yesterday,” said the SHO. Servant makes away with foreign currency Chandigarh, March 4 A domestic servant allegedly stole foreign and Indian currency from a PGI doctor’s house in Sector 24 here. In his complaint to the police, Dr Krishan Gauba stated that the suspect, Kewal of Muktsar district in Punjab, stole around 2,000 US dollars, 600 Canadian dollars, 250 euros, 350 Swiss Franc, 300 Singapore dollar and ~20,000 from his house. The police said the servant had left the house a few days ago without informing the complainant. When he didn’t return, Dr Gauba checked the house and found the foreign and Indian currency missing. A case has been registered against Kewal. — TNS Two months on, revised merit list declared TEST FOR CONSTABLE’S POSTS: Candidates had objected to answer key of several questions Chandigarh, March 4 Following objections over incorrect answer keys and questions in a computer based test for 520 posts of constables, which led to revision of 11 answers and 10 questions being declared invalid, the UT police have now come up with a revised merit list of provisionally selected candidates. Those selected will undergo medical examination from March 5. TWITTER/THETRIBUNECHD Tribune News Service Feeding on apathy Tribune News Service PAGE 6 ABHISHEK SCRIPTS PUNJAB’S WIN OVER CHHATTISGARH The police department had declared the results of the test on December 31, after which several candidates had raised objections over the answer key uploaded on the website of the department. A total of 2,185 grievances regarding 361 questions were received from as many as 791candidates. On the basis of these representations, the Chandigarh Police had directed the service provider engaged to conduct the test to get all questions and 10 QUESTIONS INVALID, ANSWER KEY OF 11 REVISED shortlisted for a written test. ■ A total of 28,227 shortlisted ■ An advertisement inviting applications for 520 posts of constable was issued in November 2015. Nearly 2.83 lakh candidates had applied online for these posts. After physical efficiency and measurement test, a total of 36,226 candidates were candidates appeared for the computer-based test. ■ Of these, 513 were declared provisionally selected. ■ However, several candidates raised objections to the answer key. ■ On scrutiny of objections, out of a total of 700 questions in the test, the answer key of 11 questions was revised and 10 questions were declared invalid. c m y b answer keys and representations received from candidates scrutinised. As per the scrutiny report, out of a total of 700 questions in the test, the answer key of 11 questions was revised and 10 questions were declared invalid. Following this, the UT police came up with a revised merit list. The provisionally selected candidates will now go through medical examination and scrutiny of documents continued on page 5 number to the Swift car,” said SSP Bhullar. During their interrogation, the suspects confessed that they had stolen continued on page 3 11-year-old boy crushed to death Zirakpur, March 4 An 11-year-old boy was crushed to death under the wheels of a tractor-trailer here today. The deceased has been identified as Harpreet, a resident of Bazigar Basti, Zirakpur. The incident took place when the victim, along with his brother, was returning home from a Shivaratri programme on a bicycle. They fell on the road all of a sudden. In the meantime, a tractor-trailer coming from behind ran over Harpreet killing him on the spot. —OC Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 4 The Municipal Corporation (MC) has denied information sought by former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on the engagement of a private company for surveying properties in the city for tax purpose. Bansal had sought information about the technical problem due to which the data provided by the firm could not be linked with the MC records leading to issuance of property tax notices to residents, the total number of house owners, sector-wise, who had been issued notices after the assignment of the work to the company, the number of house owners who had filed representations against the notices and the action taken thereon, payment made to the company for the work and whether the company completed the job or not. Instead of replying to the queries, the Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO)cum-Assistant Collector (Tax), MC, only quoted a guideline of the Government of India: “Only such information is required to be supplied under the Act which already exists and is held by the public authority or held under the control of the public authority. The CPIO is not supposed to create information, or solve the problems raised by the applicants or furnish replies to hypothetical questions”. showed that the CPIO treated the matter in a whimsical and arbitrary manner. It negates the very purpose of enacting the RTI Act. ❞ Pawan Kumar Bansal, FORMER UNION MINISTER Bansal has now filed an appeal under the RTI Act. He said the CPIO gave the reply without co-relating it to any of his queries and without application of mind. He added that the information existed with the MC but he was denied it by terming his queries as “hypothetical”. He had not sought any information or interpretation of information or solution to any problem, he added. Bansal alleged that a casual reply was given to him, which showed that the CPIO treated the matter in a whimsical and arbitrary manner. “It negates the very purpose of enacting the RTI Act,” the former minister said.

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